Lemuria by Burt Clinchandhill (epub e ink reader TXT) 📕

her direction. For a second, she wondered why the person walked and didn’t run; then she turned to her phone, where Lea was still waiting. If only she could get to her car. Amie drove one of the first self-driving cars fabricated by Logynous, an Lgé One. A gift from her employer ‘for being the most loyal and dedicated employee,’ he’d said.

“Lea,” Amie whispered into her phone. “Can you get the car out of the garage and in front of the main entrance? And I’m in a hurry, so if you please.”

Amie glanced at the screen. The blonde AI blinked, the standard built-in trait, showing when the Artificial Intelligence behind it was ‘thinking,’ or better, searching its memory. “Your car will be parked in front in one minute and thirty-eight seconds,” she replied.

“Great, thank you.” Amie opened the door to the stairwell as softly as she possibly could and went through. She closed it behind her without making a sound and started running. She was glad that this morning she decided to wear her Kimi flats. On any other day, she would be seen in her pumps, but by sheer coincidence, her big toe had hurt this morning, so she decided on the flats. She didn’t notice her big toe hurting now, even as she almost flew down the stairs. The sound of her soles against the metal steps echoed loud into the empty concrete staircase. She didn’t care. All she wanted now was to get down the stairs and out of the building in one minute, thirty-eight seconds. Three... two... one. She jumped down, skipping the last few steps and ran toward the doorway, leading to the central corridor on the ground floor. This time she didn’t bother staying quiet. She swung the door open, sped through it, and turned left running. Again, the lights overhead came on. Just keep running. Five, four, three... She counted down the offices next to her as she passed them. At one, she would be able to see the central hallway and exit. One. Within one hundred feet of the central corridor, she saw the lights in the hallway switch on, and Lea appeared on the circular screen in the center, looking like a full-body hologram.

Within seconds she rushed into the hallway, passing Lea. “How can I help you, Amie?” Lea asked.

“Open the doors. I’m in a hurry,” Amie cried out, panting as she rushed to the doors leading outside. Through the massive glass wall, she could see the lights outside go on and light up the driveway and part of the tree line in the distance. In her hurry, she almost smacked against the glass door. She looked up, took two steps back, and one forward again. Nothing happened.

“Lea, open the doors,” she commanded loudly.

“The doors are open. Have a nice evening,” the avatar spoke.

Amie walked up and down to the door a few extra times, but nothing happened. “Lea!” Her voice broke as she walked up to Lea’s projection. “Open the front doors.” At that same time, her car drove itself in front of the doors on the other side. When the car came to a full stop, the driver’s side door opened automatically, and the light inside came on.

“I’m sorry,” Lea almost sounded compassionate. “The doors are open, and you can exit the building now.”

Amie rushed from the avatar in the center to the front doors, again nothing happened. She tried to put her fingers in between the two glass panels, but there was no wiggle room. Giving it all she had, she broke a fingernail. Damn. Ouch. “Lea!”

“Good evening, Amie,” the projection spoke. “How can I help you?”

Amie thought for a short moment. If the doors wouldn’t open, how could she get out? The windows don’t open, but there’s an emergency exit about one hundred feet from here. For a second, she startled as she heard the sound of a door closing from the direction from which she had come. Quickly coming to her senses, she ran out of the hallway and into the corridor in the opposite direction. Within seconds she stopped again at the door with a green “EXIT” sign above of it.

The top and bottom of the door were separated by a gray metallic panic bar. Amie ran into the bar, forcing it with all her power. When nothing happened, she threw her hip against it with a big smack. The door didn’t budge. Desperate, she pounded both hands up against the door. In an instant, she stopped, took her phone out, looked at the screen, and widened her eyes.

“Lean,” she commanded.

On the screen, the blonde Lea immediately changed into the brown-haired Lean. “Good evening, Amie. How can I help you?”

“This is an emergency. Can you lead me to The Space from here?” Lean winked a few times and then fell silent.

Executive-level staff members and some other specially chosen employees had the privilege of access to what Mulder had called, ‘The Space.’ No one had ever seen it, but they were instructed to speak the words ‘emergency’ and ‘The Space,’ and Lean would lead them to it, so they were told.

“Follow me.” Lean came back on the screen with a photo-realistic video of the hallway, with arrows pointing in the direction of a wall only ten feet from where she stood. Amie immediately stepped up to the wall, but there was nothing there, except a large Jackson Pollock painting that ran from floor to ceiling. Reluctant, she approached the wall, and a few feet away from it, the complete painting rose from the floor and disappeared into the ceiling. Inside the large hole that appeared in the wall, the lights came on, illuminating a wide staircase going down. She looked at her phone, where the arrows pointed down the stairs. Okay, let’s do this. She quickly descended. About ten feet down, the staircase turned and led another ten feet down to an open, thick steel door with a round glass porthole in it. When she stepped